North Station Sports

The NBA season is a marathon and not a sprint. It is hard to say any one game is must win. The history of the league is littered with teams that come out blazing hot only to fade or teams that flounder for months only to click at the right time. You have to take a measured approach to looking at these very early games but that is not to say that they aren’t important and that some are more important than others. Tuesday night’s game was one of these important games – a tent pole game.

This game was big for two reasons.

1. It was in Cleveland, where the C’s have struggled. The LeBrons are generally thought of, along with the Magic, as the contenders in the East. To stand up to the crowd, the addition of Shaq, and LeBron makes this a big win.

2. KG took some hits and was OK. There were two or three times when he hit the floor and I held my breath. But he got up. I don’t care how rusty he is or what his numbers were. He took the hits and lived to tell the tail.

This game sent a message that the Celtics are for real. The Cavs lost two games at home last year, and only one that mattered. It is games like this that are fundamental to a championship run, thus the tent pole analogy. The Celts were huge in their first big test and this was a great first step.